Theme
A theme is the design and frontend framework of a Shopify store: it defines the layout, sections and user experience of the storefront.
The theme renders everything customers see in your store: homepage, collections, product pages, cart. Technically it consists of Liquid templates, JSON configuration, CSS and JavaScript. Content and layout are maintained in the theme editor through sections and blocks — since Online Store 2.0, on every page type.
Merchants have three routes: a ready-made theme from the Theme Store (fast and affordable, e.g. Dawn as the free default), a customized theme (custom sections and design on an existing theme's foundation), or a fully custom theme for maximum brand control and performance.
Economically, the theme is an investment in conversion and maintainability: a well-built theme loads fast, can be maintained by the marketing team without developers and grows with the catalog. An overloaded theme full of app leftovers and legacy code, by contrast, continuously costs performance and development time.
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